Messages - Owen Brannigan

Zzzzzzzz.The only consolation I take is that this thread is not in any way representative of Public Opinion in the real world.That's why Bishop Mc Areavey (who apologised for errors of judgement honestly and did not deny he made any) remains on the Board of Governors of St Colmans and Sean Brady gets standing ovations at Armagh Finals.

They are,like scores of others,mere footnotes in the utterly depraved lives of Brendan Smyth and Malachy Finnegan.

Bishop McAreavey is on the Board of Governors because he appointed himself onto the Board because he is the current bishop of Dromore. He can only be removed by resigning as Bishop or being removed as bishop by the Archbishop - neither of which will happen.

More hypocrisy.What if relatives of Sean Brady or Bishop Mc Areavey read this Board? To blame these two men for the monstrosities that were Brendan Smyth and Finnegan is outrageous.Just as is the case with the BBC,Professional Soccer and just about every other organisation paedophiles escaped justice and ruined lives due to a multitude of failings at all levels.

One of the great sins of your Church is the sin of omission.

In Catholic teaching, an omission is a failure to do something one can and ought to do. If an omission happens deliberately and freely, it is considered a sin.

Therefore, by failing to inform the civil authorities of abuse or failing to deal correctly with the abuser or doing whatever is required to ensure the abuser could not repeat offend, the bishops you mention have committed sins of omission. Therefore within the rules of your Church the clerical hierarchy have seriously sinned.

40 years ago (1978) on this day, 17th February, the IRA killed 12 members of the Irish Collie Club and the Northern Ireland Junior Motor Cycle Club and injured another 30 using a fire bomb which incinerated them as they attended dinner dances in the La Mon House hotel.

Zzzzz.They are not bad children.Just unfortunate.Children need to know from an early age that their parents are their rock and refuge and encouraged to tell their parents everything.

Except the when parents are handing their children over to a person of trust, 'in loco parentis' and when the parents are also being groomed and to an extent also abused by the person in trust which has been the case in virtually all cases of clerical abuse where the abuser has used his position in the community. This abuse of trust is further extended within your Church to the hierarchy who have covered up the abuse not only by moving the abuser but by using their positions to prevent parents from gaining justice for their children, e.g. the Brady-Smyth case.

So when does this "hold" end? When the victims grow up and smell the money? What about my experience on the periphery of this in 1978, when as a student working in a leisure centre I saw a full time work "colleague" arrested,charged,convicted and imprisoned for abusing two young brothers in the changing rooms.Do you know why this happened? Very simple.Abused young boys told their parents,who immediately told the police.Good children,good parenting,that's what it's all about,and that was in the 1970s.

So the parents of all those children abused by Barry Bennell were not good parents, the parents of those children abused by Brendan Smyth were not good parents and the parents of those children abused by Malachy Finnegan were all bad parents, incapable of good parenting.

Not sure if you have been blessed with any children of your own but the vast majority of parents do their best to look after their children to the best of their ability. The issue with abuse by these people is that they were in positions of trust where they preyed on children.

Tony has form in condemning the victims and their parents whereas he hasn't been as vociferous in his condemnation of the Church. Brainwashed.

Not brainwashed but curious.Young primary kids being terrified yes,but a guy at grammar school well into his teens going out of his way to take phone calls from his abuser (and money of course) every Saturday and then allowing him to resume his nefarious activities on his return stretches credulity.

When I was at grammar school a lot of the teachers were ridiculed by the lads,including priests,there was a couple of science teachers,disciplinarians,that you wouldn't have messed with, but lads generally would have stood up for themselves and not allowed anyone to manipulate them

T Fearon if you are even remotely interested in trying to understand how abusers gain a hold over their victims then watch this video:https://t.co/E3upZz47DH

The church is not doing enough IMO. Bishop McAreavy has a lot to answer for with regards to the Finnegan disgrace. They need to stop being shrouded in secrecy and start throwing people under the bus so to speak.

its funny a load of people getting worked up about a dying language that most people cannot speak or understand

I agree about the language but it has now developed from that because the DUP and UUP have fallen into the usual trap where they cannot hold themselves back in denying that over 40% of the population claim to subscribe to a non-British culture that they share with the majority of people living on the island.

So deep have unionist politicians become ensnared in this trap that they cannot see how 'unBritish' they are behaving in denying to the people of their own region of the UK the same rights as those given to the people of Wales and Scotland in terms of indigenous language and to all people in the UK in terms of same sex marriage. Yet SF have failed to bring this hypocrisy to the UK public and politicians because it suits them to be the party of protest and they need a focus.

Crying or being annoyed in a taxi will not convince me if something bad happened..

Questions missed for taxi driver: How often do you pick up couples late night or early hours of the morning where one or more of them appears to be upset and or sobbing or soiled their clothing? What stood out for you on this occasion that was different from your previous experience?

Either by very condensed reporting or weak questioning by barrister, the taxi driver appears to have gone unchallenged in witness box.

Crying in a tailgate alright won't be much use.I have often seen young girls bawling their eyes out late at night after drinking. There are loads of reasons that could be the cause.He broke up with me. He danced with some slut, too much gin, he rode me, he didn't ride me.

Exactly, my point, why would a barrister not ask these questions to show how common this experience was for the taxi driver collecting late night travellers.

Probably the best remark from a pundit last night came from David McCann who pointed out that unionist politicians had form when it came to refusing to make small concessions that would make huge differences in diffusing or improving the situation but which would be seen in hindsight as huge mistakes.

For example, a few simple, timely concessions in late 1968 to the original Civil Rights protests and not using state force to attempt to break them would have changed history completely. They claimed the Civil Rights movement was the IRA attempting to overthrow the state and had to be put down. We now know that only Declan Kearney believes that nonsense.

Unionist politicians always manage to revert to some bogeyman in their refusal to lose their unionist hegemony that exists purely within their own psyche. Unionist politicians cannot move on in their own minds despite the majority of the PUL population being very far down the road from them.